


Falling For You

by readbycandlelight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas fic, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Head Girl Hermione Granger, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Magic, dramione - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 21:59:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13017003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readbycandlelight/pseuds/readbycandlelight
Summary: At Professor Flitwick's request, Head Girl Hermione Granger demonstrates the flying charm to First Years with a few Christmas trees and ornaments involved. A certain blond is tasked with making sure she doesn't fall during her demonstration. Dramione. Based on an OTP prompt where Person A falls into Person B’s arms while decorating a Christmas tree.





	Falling For You

It was nearing Christmas time at Hogwarts castle once more. The grounds were thick with powder white snow and the Great Hall was filled with the haunting melody of the Christmas choir. Hermione Granger, who had come back to complete her last year of schooling, was wearing her shining Head Girl badge as she smiled at a line of timid first years.

 

“Now, students,” said Professor Flitwick, as he gestured up towards Hermione, who towered over him despite her average height. “I have something marvelous to show you today. This year’s Head Girl, Hermione Granger, has quite an aptitude for charms and is going to show you the flying charm in rare form today. Now you’ve all practiced flying a feather into the air during your lessons, but you’ve yet to see an actual person fly in the air. This is where I shall let Ms. Granger take over and demonstrate,” he said, gesturing Hermione to take center stage.

 

Hermione smiled sheepishly as she noticed the gathering crowd as students shuffled in for lunch. Older students sat at their house tables and turned their attention curiously to see what the gathered first years were doing standing around the still unadorned Christmas trees for. ‘ _Okay, Hermione, focus_ ,’ she told herself, knowing the concentration it took to sustain levitating oneself. ‘ _It’s just like the large crowds that showed up for the DADA meetings,_ ’ she assured herself.

 

“Now the first thing one must remember when performing a flying charm is that these charms only work on inanimate objects and some small creatures,” Hermione said to the crowd, her nervousness falling away as she eagerly imparted her knowledge to her younger peers. “Jarleth Hobart, the creator of the first flying charm, actually mistakenly thought he had achieved the power of flight the first few times he tested the charm. It was only after many embarrassing public displays that he figured out that it was not he himself he had charmed, but his articles of clothing. Over the years many great witches and wizards have honed their skills with the flying charm. It takes tremendous concentration and effort, but if you can focus all that intent on your clothing -- then it might as well be you yourself that is flying,” she said with a smile. She took a deep breath, visualizing her uniform skirt, her collared shirt and jumper, her Gryffindor tie, her black school robes, and even her knee socks and maryjanes, and then intoned in her mind ‘ _Wingardium Leviosa!_ ’

 

Slowly her feet left the floor. She felt herself go higher and higher until she was hovering a good meter from the ground. The first years gasped and cheered, telling their friends that they wanted to be able to do that. Even the older students clapped and cheered from their tables. Hermione beamed down at them, then closed her eyes and imagined her clothes spinning in a circle. As she visualized it, she spun in a circle, higher and higher amidst the Christmas trees. She held aloft her wand, and pointed it at the box of Christmas ornaments near Professor Flitwick, thinking ‘ _Wingardium Leviosa!_ ’ The candles, gold ribbons, and crystal ornaments flew out of the box and started floating in spirals, making their way to the Christmas trees. Professor Flitwick flicked his wand and then flames flickered to life on each candle that was adorning themselves to the trees.

 

Hermione was floating along, pointing an errant ribbon along to spiral around one of the taller trees when she heard Professor Flitwick say irritably: “Mr. Malfoy, please take up your post beneath Ms. Granger. You’ve been assigned by the Headmistress to help my class with safety today, have you not?”

 

“Yes, Professor Flitwick,” said that all too familiar haughty drawl.

 

Hermione whipped around in a fast twirl in the air towards the sounds of the voices and watched none other than Draco Malfoy as he sauntered out of the shadows to make his way beneath her, a scowl on his pale angular face. Hermione knew that Professor Flitwick said he was going to have a student help with her safety today, just in case there were any falling mishaps -- but she hadn’t thought about the fact that the student could be Malfoy!

 

Oh, how could she have forgotten about Malfoy’s probation on his return to Hogwarts? Headmistress McGonagall had agreed to let him back in school, but only on the condition that he would have to help the Hogwarts staff in any capacity they saw fit. Just last week she and Ginny had been giggling in the Gryffindor common room about having seen him having to bathe the thestrals at Hagrid’s direction on the front lawn of the castle. She said bathe, but it was more like tackling as the Malfoy heir had to keep the disgruntled thestrals from flying off. Needless to say, his school uniform had been sopping wet with suds and his normally sleekly styled hair was soaked and messily falling in front of his eyes. It had all been fun and games then when she and Ginny were having a laugh at him having to push up his sleeves and get dirty like a working-class wizard -- but now that he was almost directly beneath her and in charge of catching her if she fell -- his probation didn’t seem so funny now. If anything were to go wrong, he’d probably let her fall on purpose! Hermione felt herself dip down what must have been a foot in the air.

 

‘ _Oh! Think happy thoughts! Wait, no! That’s from the muggle fairy tale, Peter Pan!_ ’ Hermione thought a little hysterically. ‘ _Wingardium Leviosa! Wingardium Leviosa! Wingardium Leviosa!_ ’ she thought, willing her school uniform to fly high. She rose again to her lofty heights, her cheeks thoroughly pinked by her blunder. She looked down to see Malfoy with his arms stretched out at the ready, his eyebrows arched in alarm at her sudden dip. “Watch it, Granger. Didn’t think you’d fall into my arms so easily,” he taunted. There were appreciative ‘oooohs’ and giggles from the prepubescent and teenage onlookers. Malfoy, who had been decidedly a lot less popular since his return to Hogwarts, seemed to gain a glimmer of his smarmy smirk back at getting the student body to laugh.

 

Hermione felt herself blush even harder. “Only in your dreams, Malfoy,” she said, before she suddenly smiled and decided to make his life harder. This was her moment to shine and help the first years learn something new. She wasn’t going to let Malfoy’s mandatory probation spoil her lesson. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and then floated away to the last ornament in the box: a beautiful golden many-pointed star that was a topper for the center tree, as Malfoy was forced to follow at the ready beneath her as she floated in a cheeky twirl, dancing away from him in the air. She pointed her wand and the topper rose into the air and floated towards the center tree as she followed. It gently flew down until it settled onto the crown of the Christmas tree. There was a deafening sound of applause as the students cheered on Hermione’s magical display.

 

“That was bloody brilliant!” a third year Hufflepuff shouted, who just so happened to be near Headmistress Mcgonagall, who gave the student a stern look for their language before thinking better of it and clapping for Hermione as well.

 

Hermione giggled as she did a curtsy in midair. She finally looked at Malfoy, wanting to give him a haughty sneer and rub his nose in her success, but instead felt a tingling jolt in her stomach as she caught an unguarded look of unadulterated awe on his face as he looked up at her, watching her float and twirl around the trees. His silver gaze was intense -- so intense that she forgot her concentration and suddenly plummeted down, down, down…

 

“Malfoy!” she screamed and closed her eyes tightly shut as she braced herself for the cold hard impact of the castle’s ancient stone floor. But the impact never came. Instead she fell tightly into a pair of arms that were quick with seeker reflexes and felt as strong and toned as steel. Her stomach did a flip again as she slowly opened her eyes, her mouth forming a small ‘oh’ in surprise. Darkened silver eyes stared straight into her gaze, piercing her soul.

 

“Looks like it’s not only in my dreams,” he whispered quietly, but only for her to hear. One large hand cradled her lower back and the other was splayed beneath the backs of her thighs. Hermione, who’d used all her breath while screaming, took in a large, shuddering breath, feeling suddenly as if the thin black school cloak separating her thighs from his hand’s direct touch might burn away from the heat she suddenly felt. She’d been taunting him when she’d made that glib comment about his dreams, but was he seriously implying that he dreamed of her? She felt strange and feverish with gooseflesh at the idea of it.

 

Professor Flitwick gave a loud “Settle down, students, settle down!” breaking Hermione and Draco’s intense stare. Hermione suddenly realized that the whole hall was cheering the fact that Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin prince fallen from grace, had actually caught muggleborn Hermione Granger. “A harrowing landing, to be sure,” Professor Flitwick continued speaking to his class, “but still a very proficient display up until that point. Erm, Mr. Malfoy, you can kindly put Ms. Granger down now.”

 

“Oh,” Malfoy said softly, sounding dazed, as the first years around him giggled. He slowly lowered her until her feet could safely land on the floor. She hadn’t been this close to him in… ever, and had never realized how much taller he was than her. His hands left her but she could still feel his touch imprinted on her body.

 

She swallowed thickly and took a step back, blinking up at Malfoy owlishly as everyone settled down and resumed their business as Professor Flitwick released his first years for lunch. “I suppose I should thank you,” she said, clearing her throat, “for not letting me drop. So… um, thank you.”

 

Malfoy stared at her curiously, in a way that made her heart beat rapidly in her chest. A slow grin transformed his face. “No problem, Granger... Feel free to fall for me any time.” And with that he sauntered off to the Slytherin table, looking back once to keep grinning at her as she stared at his retreating form. Hermione dazedly walked over to the Gryffindor table, taking a seat next to Ginny.

 

“What was that all about?” asked the red headed witch, who glared at the Slytherin table as a small group of Slytherins surrounded Malfoy, giving him congratulatory pats on the back and teasing him with a floating piece of mistletoe. “Looks like Malfoy’s got friends again. What was he saying to you near the trees? Is he back to his arsehole self again?”

 

“No,” Hermione breathed out, taking a beat to realize what she said. “I-I mean, I don’t know. He was just being… smarmy, I suppose.”

 

Ginny watched as Malfoy snatched the piece of mistletoe from the air and stuffed it into one of his school robe pockets; his gaze never seemed to waver from the Gryffindor table where Hermione was all the while.

 

**The End**

 

_Happy Christmas!_

**Author's Note:**

> Rated G and a oneshot for now, but if there are comments from people interested in reading more I might expand this to a multi-chaptered fic and up the rating because it was a lot of fun to write!


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